Summer Dreams
by Raventhedarkgoddess
Summary: It's finally come time for Tohru and friends to graduate. Yuki is supposed to be giving a speech, but something will make him rethink his speech for something more precious: Memories. YT Dedicated to the class of 2006.


**Summer Dreams**

**Rating: **Teen  
**Genre: **Romance/Angst  
**Summary: **It's finally come time for Tohru and friends to graduate. Yuki is supposed to be giving a speech, but something will make him rethinkhis speech for something more precious: Memories. Y/T Dedicated to the class of 2006.  
**Couple:** Yuki/Tohru  
**Author's Notes: **For all you graduating out there, I dedicate this. It may be slightly AU, I apoligize. I'm really bored and exams have done nothing but add scar tissue to my brain... Forgive me.

* * *

"I've seen many things within the wall of this school, but none of them are comparable to the experiences I've had with teachers, classmates, and..." He stopped and sighed. "This all sounds really hollow..." 

"You've only been saying it non-stop for the past week. We've got fifteen more minutes as a high school, and you're worried about doing what you were told to do? Give me a break."

"Shut up, Kyo. You have no idea how stressful the very idea of this speech is for me. I have to do well so that the school and the grants will come through, and I can..."

"Go to Akito's college? Live by Akito's rules? You're not the one without a future, yet you're the one just calmly accepting everything like you want to live in a little glass house for the rest of your life," Kyo scoffed, pulling at the neck of his gown. "Honestly..."

"It's not like that. I just want to do well for... for myself."

"That's a lie. Come on... Don't you ever wonder what life's like without all these walls around you all the time? Don't you ever just want to remember how things were and find a way to keep living like that? Rather than his college, his rules, his DARKNESS all the time? Don't you ever just want to be normal, Yuki?"

Yuki flattened his hair with both hands one last time and said nothing.

"You think I'm right. Just admit it. Even if you won't admit it, I can see it in your eyes, right now. Come on, make a speech about what you want to make a speech about. Be yourself, for once. I may not like you, but... I hateanyone living by Akito's rules more than I hate you. And I can't beat you if you turn into a spoiled brat."

Yuki turned his head away.

"Just think about it." And then Kyo turned his head away, muttering what sounded painfully like 'Stupid rat' through a series of loud coughs.

_Idiot, _Yuki found himself thinking. Still, something Kyo had said was nagging at him, nagging at a deeper part of his brain that even he couldn't explain.

**_"Make a speech about what YOU want to make a speech about for once. Talk the way you want to..."_**

_It's not like I've had any life-changing experiences here anyway. This is better, this is..._

"This is it, huh?" Haru asked from next to him. "You know, I really never thought I'd get here. It seems like so much and yet so little, and now we're going out of our free years."

"Oh, it's not that bad."

"You're going off to the head of house. Of course it's not hard for you. Nothing is. But... Yuki, what about me? The big dumb ox doesn't have much of a choice after high school. They'll just shut me away, behind those walls, and I'll be your servent or something... Don't you just want to stay where life is simple?"

"I'm not worried about it."

"Of course you're not. That big long speech... And a fake smile." Haru grabbed Yuki's wrist. "You really ought to think some more, Yuki, about what it is you really, really want out of life. I'm going to go sit over there, but... Just think on it a little bit, while you're still here and before you forget about people like me."

"Haru, I would never..."

But Haru has already gotten up and moved to the other side of the room, where he was sitting with his hands clasp, white for once, calmness and reservation coursing through his body. All at once, Yuki felt something...

And then the chatter dropped away from him for a sudden, painful mixture of dreams, nightmares, and all the times that had been spent, the words of Haru and Kyo echoing in his mind.

_"Yuki! Yuki, come sit with me and Hana and Uo and Kyo!" Tohru had been waving at him on that empy summer day, smiling as she indicated the picnic. "Since it's one of the last days of school before summer break, I thought we could share this."  
And as Yuki had sat down, he'd tripped and landed, face down, in the salad. "So where's the Rat Prince now?" Kyo had asked, and the pair of them cracked up._

_"Yuki?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you think... we'll always be friends? School is ending so quickly, and... once you go to the Sohma estate... I'll never be allowed to see you again. Akito... He hates me."  
Yuki had hugged her, dropping the basket he'd been holding and knocking the one she'd held out of her hands. "It'll be okay. I promise you, I'm not going to stop being your friend for anything."  
"Really?"  
"Really."_

_"Tohru, I sense strange waves... Can you tell me where they're coming from?"  
"You're the wave-reader, Hana," Tohru had said, with that little nervous laugh.  
"I think you had best get going home, Hana. Tohru, are you going to walk there on your way to work?"  
"Y... Yeah..."  
"Well," Shigure had said, bursting in, "I think lover-boy over here was going to tell you to come home safely!"  
"I will!" And she had walked away into the setting sun. "I'm always going to come home safely," he had heard her telling Hana._

_"Eh, shut up, Yuki!"  
"Hahah, Orangy's losing his temper!"  
"It's not my fault you're unable to keep your head about you and so you fell into my door..."  
"It is your fault you kicked me!"  
"You wanna GO!"  
And Tohru had stepped inbetween them. And tripped. They had all started to laugh then..._

_"So, what do you think graduation will be like?"  
Kyo had stood up and walked away.  
"Great, Hana! We're all going to have so much fun staying together!"_

_T...Together._

Yuki snapped out of it in time to hear 'And now we will have a special speech from Yuki Sohma, who will be talking about his experience and the wonderful times shared by his class at his high school. Please welcome our most popluar, prestige..."

_Together._

His hands ripped the paper he held into shreds. "Here it goes," he whispered, and lead the others out to the chairs waiting for them in front of rows and rows of people as the girls filed out of the other door. Everyone sat down behind him, and when there was silence, his teacher gave him a sharp look from offstage.

Before he began, he gave one last sweep of the stage, to where Tohru sat, nestled between Hana and Uo, both of whom were wiping tears off Tohru's face with smiles forced on their own. _"Do you think... we'll always be friends?"_

"Fellow classmates, parents, and teachers... The past few years here have been a time for all of us to grow, and change. The classes are wonderful, the people are friendly... But I'm not up here to give a planned speech. I'm not up here to be our classes' good spokesperson."

He looked over at Kyo, who's jaw had dropped slightly, and then at Tohru, who appeared to be listening intently.

"I'm here to talk about... What this high school was really like. Every single time I walked from here to home, I would feel relief. Like I was running away from something. The classes weren't that great, the people were always trying to convince me that I should like them... And I was always withdrawn. I hated this place."

"I hated everything here. Until I started to make better friends with people. And recently.. One of my friends asked me what I thought life would be like after high school, if I thought I would lose people."

"And I realized..." Yuki said quietly. "I realized just what was going to happen. High school has been preparing us for a harder, tougher reality. But... I want everyone who's helped me to realize we all get to choose to make our own futures. You will all go on, but..."

"The memories stay. They've always stayed. I'm always going to remember you, and I'm going to try to find our way. Not my way, our way. All of us."

"Because these days... Have been broken by laughs, by smiles, and by friendship. And I don't ever want those to fade. Not when people have taught me about all that here. Which is more than a class. It's more than a hope. It's something we're always going to have."

"So as you graduate tonight, I want you to think about this... Think about the people you love, and the difference between your dreams and the dreams that have already come true in their presence. Because I can almost tell you: Dreams that have already been solved are so much different than the ones we'd make by being selfish."

"Just remember what true friendship is as you depart from this place. Your memories, I hope, are the most precious thing to you. Make memories tonight, make memories tomorrow, but please..."

Yuki's voice and words failed him, and he looked around the stage until his eyes met Tohru's. He blinked down the tears he felt mirroring her sadness and swallowed hard to empty his throat.

"Please never forget to hold onto the people you love and keep them a part of your future. Thank you. That's all I have to say... Thank you."

And Yuki turned to sit among the graduates. The teacher shot him a glare, but then a gentle smile, but still he sat silent, waiting for their names to be called.

Waiting to be able to say what he still had to say to the people he cared about.

* * *

"Yuki!" Tohru started to fling herself at him but he held out his hand to hold her off in the public lobby of the school, crushing both of their diplomas while Shigure stood nearby, watching with a smirk. "Yuki, your speech was fantastic!" 

"Thanks, Tohru. Listen... You and I... We'll still be good friends. We're going to find a way around... Everything. And you... We'll be together. I promise."

"Yuki..." Tohru smiled. "I'm so happy... That you aren't going away. That we're all going to still be friends. I promise to do my best... To break the curse! To free Kyo and... To save you."

"I'm the one who almost left, Tohru. Thank you for... For being my friend. For staying with me. Thank you so much..."

Impulse lead him to gently peck her on her forehead.

"Well, if that isn't adorable... A poetic speech followed by a dramatic act of romance!"

"Oh... Shut up, Shigure!" Yuki yelled, leaving Haru and Kyo standing there laughing,Tohru looking puzzled, and Shigure sprinting across the school lobby, Yuki waving his diploma with the threat of killing him.

"Some things just don't have to change, eh, Tohru?" Hana said from her shoulder, and Tohru could only nod.

"And even if they did... It's not like the memories go anywhere," she added, leaving the three friends to hug, and the Zodiac guys either laughing, running for their lives, or madly dashing to kill someone else.

**(END)  
Please have safe and happy graduation day!  
-Raventhedarkgoddess-**


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